7mm 160 grain Accubond Field Report

Well I shot Three Whitetail Doe's last week with this bullet and now have mixed feelings about it. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] The first Doe I shot was at 30 yards ( Wind was 25+ Miles an hour so no Long Range this day) running broadside when the bullet hit her all I seen was a red mist and and she went about 40 yards and went down hard. I have never seen blood fly like that from a deer being shot I was impressed . I went up to her and I hit her right where I wanted just behind the shoulder about half ways up from the brisket. After skining her I examined the bullet holes. On the enterance side it was about the size of a penny and on the exit side it was about like a 50 cent piece. I thought great I know have a bullet that shoots well and holds together well and really puts a hurt on the deer. Now for the next deer. I went out Last Tuesday and luck would have it only a little wind. I setup on a field but the shot I was able to get was 310 yards. The Doe was standing broadside so I took her in the neck she went down like a rock. When I skinned her the bullet hit the spine but did not exit? All I could find is some pieces of the jacket. Now for deer #3. I went out last Friday and it was the last day of the of season and the winds were again 25+ miles an hour so again no Long Range. I ended up shooting a Doe around 75 yards in the neck again. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img] Took her home same as the last deer no exit bullet was in pieces. Now I know that two of the shots were really close but the 300 + shot should have went through if you ask me. I was thinking of using these bullets for Elk but what would happen if you shot a Elk at 500 + yards and hit its shoulder? Am I being to picky with the bullet Performance? My setup is a Rem Sendero 7mm STW shooting those 160 Accubonds at 3250 FPS.

Three shots, three dead deer? Sounds good to me. I think you're worrying about the "what ifs" instead of the "what are's". And remember, that bullet will only hold together better the farther off the animal is.

To be honest with you, anyone intentionally looking to center a shot directly on the shoulder knuckle of a mature bull elk better be bringing more gun to the fight then a 7mm.

That said, I am not a fan of a direct shoulder hit, even on elk. I would much rather punch both lungs and let a bull run out of air before taking the chance of taking out the onside shoulder and only getting 1/2 way through the chest.

Elk are huge animals with a huge chest cavity. Your 160 gr Accubond slipped behind the shoulder will easily harvest the biggest bullet elk. I really like shooting for the offside shoulder. If it gets broken then the first thing I know for a fact is that my shot landed exactly where I wanted and had to travel through the vitals to get there.

There are a couple shots that require a shot to be placed near the shoulder such as a quartering toward you angle but again, generally you can slip it just inside the shoulder and get an easier path to the chest cavity.

About your deer shooting. I have found the spine to be the hardest group of bones in a deers body, they are also made up of complicated angles and such that can deflect bullets and rob them of energy.

An example of a neck shot deer was the buck I took this season with one of my 257 STW rifles using the 130 gr Wildcat Bonded Core FBHP loaded to 3450 fps. At 300 yards, I put the Wildcat bullet directly in the throat patch of the 340 lb whitetail and he folded to the shot.

Upon caping the buck out, I found that the bullet had not exited. With a little more investigating, I found that the bullet had penetrated the spine but had come to a stop about 2" before reaching the offside of the bucks neck. This whitetails neck circumference was right at 24" around so it was a solid path or resistance.

With the accuracy of your 7mm STW jsut concentrate on getting that bullet into the vitals. If you want to be able to center on that shoulder I would either recommend a heavier caliber or some of the Wildcat Bullets 180 gr Heavy jacket bonded core bullets.

Kirby I know what you are saying I think if you put the bullet in the lungs with most cals it would kill a Elk. But sometimes the poo poo happends and you end up hitting something harder then you wanted to. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img] I know that the spine of a deer is tough on bullets but in the past I have had Partitions blow right through. I have some 175 grain ULD flatbase bullets with a .30 Jacket on order from Richard. I will give these a try and test them on something really hard maybe even the carcus of the deer I shot. If worse comes to worse I could try the 175 Partitions but I think Richards bullets will work fine.

my lope at 407yds with the 160gr had no complaints this year,..neither did the mulie at 276yds and his neck wound. 2 bullets,..2 bodies,..just the way I like it. I'll be asking the whitetail their impressions this summer on the cropm damage permits. It left smaller holes than the NBT,..but for whatever reason,.the internals were fu(&amp;$) up. I am liking this pill right much. It flies as true to 300yds as the NBT's in my rig,..and the toughness in there for anything on the NA continent. I'll continue my useage based on this year's results. MHO.

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You try to get closer to the target,..and I keep trying to get further away.

dakor,
If you think the Accubonds didn't work right then listen to this:
I seen the bullet that was taken from a Cow elk that was shot in the neck at 40 yds with a 7mag. That's right, the 160 Rem. corlok did not go thru the neck!
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